Rosengarten Classic. Originally Published: ROSENGARTEN REPORT, November 2002.
At year-end holiday time, Americans are highly imaginative in their party-planning: we’re likely to draw on American ideas, British ideas, Italian ideas, French ideas, Mexican ideas and more. But one of the world’s culinary corners that lends itself most delectably to parties—and to winter parties, at that!—is oftentimes overlooked.
Ja…I speak of Scandinavia, and its glorious food traditions. Light, clean, pure, pretty food that makes everyone happy. Even though there’s not a drop of Nordic blood in me, some of my best holiday parties ever have had Scandinavian themes. And the preparation of it all is sufficiently simple that the cook doesn’t even have to get stressed out pulling it together.
Here are five easy and amazingly delicious things you can do to get all that frosty Northern goodness on your festive bord:
(2012 NOTE: Good news! All products are available in 2012 from either Scandinavian Butik or Scandinavian Food Store.)
Stage A Scandinavian Seafood Feast.
Here are the ones I most want you to know about for your holiday parties:
Shrimp
I’ve long been a huge fan of Scandinavian shrimp. I got addicted to them in Oslo, going down to the docks to buy them from fishing boats that had just pulled in to shore. You buy the critters cooked, cold, with head, tail and shell on. As you clean them with your fingers—revealing the shrimp within that are skinnier, crisper, less “doughy” than ours–you find wonderful roe and creamy head fat. Better still, the shrimp meat is intensely sweet, and simultaneously salty like the brine of the sea. There is nothing like them in the world. How depressed I’ve been that I have to travel all the way to Scandinavia to get them.
And how ecstatic I am to find out that I don’t—because Scandinavian Butik carries a wonderful product called Shrimp, Scandinavian-Style, Peel-On (only $20.50 for 2 lbs!) This is a major revelation! They are frozen, but every home freezer in Sweden has bags of this stuff—and if you defrost them properly in the fridge they come back to life beautifully, tasting just like they do on a Scandinavian dock, and nothing like shrimp do in America.
The very best way to serve them—remember, no cooking needed—is to simply place them in a bowl, accompanied by brown bread, butter, beer and/or aquavit. Watch your guests go wild as they shell and munch. Another option is to shell them yourself, and use them as the main ingredient in a Swedish open-faced sandwich. They also make wonderful garnishes for fish-in-cream-sauce dishes.
Crawfish
Another joy in Scandinavia is crawfish, which the crawfish-mad Swedes call kreftor. They eat them at delirious crayfish parties in late August—but you can get amazing crawfish, some of them huge, year-round. Once again, they come cooked and frozen. But these high-quality crawfish also arrive marinating in a mesmerizing Swedish-style broth, that is redolent of “crown” dill and other herbs and spices. Once again, serving them is simplicity itself: place them in a huge bowl, give your guests plenty of napkins, and watch the shell-cracking begin. For eight people who want a good taste, a 2.2 lbs box of Crawfish, Cooked ($38.95) from Scandinavian Butik should suffice.
Löjrom
Scandinavians love their caviar—but not necessarily sturgeon roe! One of the world’s most delicious lower-cost caviar alternatives is the roe of the bleak fish, called löjrom. It has a clean, slightly salty, very sea-like taste, and a wonderfully fuzzy-but-crunchy kind of texture in the dark-yellow eggs. I like löjrom all by itself with a spoon—but I also like it as the Swedes do, on starchy things (bread, blini, potato pancakes) with creme fraiche, chopped red onion and dill. One more use: it makes an amazing garnish on open-faced sandwiches. Try it especially on the Swedish shrimp sandwich. Löjrom from Scandinavian Food Store costs $19.50 for a 50-gram jar.
Caviar Spread
Here’s an even lower-cost “caviar”—the tubes of cod roe spread that are ubiquitous in Scandinavia. They are wonderful for your party buffet: what you push out of the tube can serve as squiggly garnishes for things, can be served on crackers (like Scandinavian flat bread), on hard-boiled eggs, on cucumber slices. Scandinavian Food Store offers a bunch of tubular possibilities, but my favorite is the Caviar Kalles, Abba ($5.75 for a 6.7-ounce tube.) It is intensely sweet-salty, with a wonderful essence-of-the-sea taste. Some of the tubes have contents that are gooey and runny, but this one is stiff and light in texture. My runner-up is the Caviar Kalles with Dill, Abba (same company, same price, same size.) It’s a little less intense, but with a wonderful dill flavor. Remember to use only a little—these tubes are concentrated flavor bombs!
Herring
Scandinavia’s favorite fish gets a bad name in America; that’s because Americans rarely get to taste herring that’s as fresh, as firm-textured, and as beautifully flavored as herring is in Scandinavia. One commercial brand that I enjoy over there is Abba, which has nothing to do with a 70s pop band…and, lo and behold, Scandinavian Butik has a whole line of Abba products available in the U.S. They do come in jars that look like Vita Herring jars, but fear not: these pieces of fish have a much livelier chew, and much better flavor. My favorite is the Abba Swedish Herring in Traditional Marinade—a winey-sweet broth, with tantalizing hints of clove and peppercorns. Next, I like the Abba Herring in Garlic Sauce, a dreamy creamy concoction, much thinner and more velvety than the Vita creamed herring sauce. In third place, for me, is the Abba Herring in Tomato Sauce, an almost painfully intense combination. I also like the Abba Herring in Dill Marinade, and the Abba Herring in Mustard Sauce (very creamy and yellow.) All come in jars ranging from 7.9-8.5 oz., and all cost $4.25 a jar. No smörgåsbord is complete without an assortment of herrings—so, at your Scandinavian party, why not present all five, ice-cold, each in a different dish, garnished with dill, accompanied by bread, butter, and frosty spirits? You’ll be amazed at how many herring converts you’ll make!
Scandinavian Butik web address is: http://www.scandinavianbutik.com/
Scandinavian Food Store’s web address is: http://www.scandinavianfoodstore.com/
Photos Via: Scandinavian Butik, Scandinavian Food Store, Bigstockphoto
